There are some days your brain seems utterly bare. Open it up, and you’d find empty candy wrappers and a few scraps of paper. Coming up with one decent idea feels unimaginable. Stringing a few lucid sentences together feels like a feat.

Whatever your profession, it’s probably safe to say that you’ve experienced a creative block — or 10 — before. It happens to everyone. We’re not robots. We don’t spit out ideas in seconds.

After struggling with his own bout of creative block — while writing a piece on creative block — Alex Cornell, a San-Francisco-based designer and musician, decided to ask for help. He emailed friends and artists for advice. That advice created a popular blog post.